Modi on his first overseas visit after becoming the PM for a second term had said that India will help foster the sport in the Maldives and accomplish President Solih’s mission to grow cricket in the country.

SNS Web | June 12, 2019 2:19 pm

(Representational Picture: Twitter/@narendramodi)

Veteran Indian cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for encouraging Cricket by presenting the President of Maldives a bat signed by the Indian Team.

PM Modi had tweeted a picture of himself handing the bat to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih with the caption “Connected by cricket! My friend, President @ibusolih is an ardent cricket fan, so I presented him a cricket bat that has been signed by #TeamIndia playing at the #CWC19.”

Tendulkar retweeted the PM’s tweet and said that the action was a good example of “cricket diplomacy” during the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2019.

“Thank you for promoting cricket @narendramodi ji. Good example of cricket diplomacy during the @cricketworldcup. Hoping to see Maldives on the cricketing map soon” said the former Team India batsman.

Modi on his first overseas visit after becoming the PM for a second term had said that India will help foster the sport in the Maldives and accomplish President Solih’s mission to grow cricket in the country. Currently, India is guiding the Maldivian cricket players and training them to pull up the country’s cricketing potential to meet the required standard, the foreign ministry had said.

He also added that the foreign ministry was working closely with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to help in training the players from the Maldives. “A team from the BCCI visited the Maldives earlier in May for training Maldivian cricketers, organising coaching programmes and supply kits”, he explained.

India is also looking into constructing a stadium in the Island nation which is another request made by it, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had earlier said.